Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 12: Sahitya Akademi New Delhi, the National Akademi of Letters convened an interaction programme titled ‘People and Books’ with Zorawar Singh Jamwal, a senior Journalist and social activist of Duggar Pradesh.
The programme in Dogri was conducted at Press Club, in collaboration with Team Jammu and was presided over by Darshan Darshi (D K Vaid), Convener Dogri Advisory Board of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.
The speaker of the event, Zorawar Singh Jamwal informed the audience about his passion for the Dogri language, literature and heritage, besides delving on the books which influenced him greatly and prompted him to work for the welfare of youth in particular and common people in general.
While explaining the aims and objectives of his Team Jammu which primarily is focused on eradicating the evil of drug use amongst youth, he candidly admitted about his recent realization that Dogri literature and Dogri writers are powerful vehicles for accessing youth of Duggar Pradesh and to train their minds against drug use.
Books, he said, are great influencers but the writers when available in person could be more effective mind changers. He also thanked Sahitya Akademi for providing him a popular national platform to interact with writers and intellectuals of Dogri in furtherance of mission of Jammu Team. Writers should be more visible on social scenes and not just restricted to literary fora, he pleaded.
Earlier Darshan Darshi, while introducing the speaker on `Books and People’, said that journalists and literary writers are almost like twins as both use the ‘Word’ as powerful tool to express free thought. Journalism has often been called ‘Literature in haste’ and that it is not for nothing that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to two journalists. Stressing the need of inculcating reading habit in public in general and youth in particular, he said: ‘Mind is a muscle that must be exercised. What Yoga does to body muscle, reading does to mind muscle.’
The talk was followed by an interactive session where many prominent writers and intellectuals asked questions about the issues put forward by Zorawar Singh Jamwal. The programme was attended by a large number of prominent Dogri writers, Journalists, intellectuals, academicians and important members of civil society.
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